


Be a Good Little Murderer

by cunzy4



Series: Font Skeleton Hell [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Aborted Undertale Genocide Run, Chara is a lil bitch, Forgiveness of a sort, Frisk gives up, Frisk is sorry, Gen, Reader Is Frisk, Redemption of a sort, Sans Remembers Resets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 16:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11017206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cunzy4/pseuds/cunzy4
Summary: There's only one more obstacle in your way....Why were you doing this, again?Sans is nearly unstoppable, but you are Determined....Why did you want to kill him?You're on the verge of completing Genocide, but you change your mind at the last second. You accept Sans's mercy, knowing it will not be survivable.You spare him anyway.





	Be a Good Little Murderer

_heya. you’ve been busy, huh?_

The Judgment Hall glowed gold and red, despite the lack of a true sun to shine through the windows.  Dust motes of questionable origin wafted through the air undisturbed.

 

_so… i’ve got a question for you._

You faced down Sans for the… thirtieth time? Hundredth time? You’d lost count hours ago.

 

_do you think even the worst person can change?_

Every time you reloaded your Save, he was standing there waiting for you, prepared to take on your challenge over and over. You had no idea if he remembered killing you so many times, or if he truly could read your face well enough to infer that he had.

_that everybody can be a good person, if they just try?_

You tossed the Real Knife back and forth in your hands nervously, unwilling to step into the fight again quite yet. Unlike every other opponent you’d faced, Sans always attacked the instant you initiated the battle. Half the time, you were dead within seconds.

 

_heh heh heh heh_

 

The locket pulsed against your chest with a beat of its own.

_all right…_

 

Chara’s voice whispered in your ears, louder than the voice of your conscience.

_well, here’s a better question._

 

You hadn’t heard your conscience in a long time.

_do you wanna have a bad time?_

 

No. You didn’t. But you’d already made your choice-- or it had been made for you-- long ago.

_because if you take another step forward…_

 

You resisted the urge to attack prematurely, lunging at him in a desperate attempt to catch him off-guard.

_you are really not going to like what happens next._

 

Your feet shuffled forward against your will.

_welp…_

_sorry, old lady._

_this is why I never make promises._

* * *

 

Your pulse pounded in your ears, nearly drowning out Sans’s mocking words as you came at him again and again in a fruitless attempt to kill him. No matter what you tried, he was always just a fraction of a second ahead of you, dodging out of the reach of your blade. This particularly frustrated you because, in all the timelines you’d explored, you’d never seen Sans move an inch further than he had to. And he still didn’t seem to move much, barely leaning out of the way of your attacks. Yet, your weapon never so much as brushed his slipper. _Who the hell wears slippers in a battle to the death?_

You relented in your pointless strikes to shove your last Glamburger in your mouth. Sans never deviated from the script to comment on your healing items, but the burger gave you a pang of nostalgia for the times you’d spent sitting in Grillby’s, sharing a meal with… your best friend…

Whom you were now trying to kill with every ounce of your strength.

And it wasn’t his fault at all.

_“Who are you trying to fool with this pity party?”_ Chara’s voice whispered. _“You chose your path. You’ve forfeited the right to have any regrets. Now cowboy up and kill him already!”_

Your Determination strengthened. The ghost-child was right. You had no right to long for happier times, when you were the one who had willingly thrown it all away.

And for what?

Just to see what would happen.

Sans had waited patiently during your brief rest, since he couldn’t attack during your turn. Now he summoned a lightning-fast barrage of Gaster Blasters that tore your SOUL to shreds, leaving you barely holding on at 1HP.

_Is this how Sans feels all the time?_ you wondered, clutching your chest as your SOUL throbbed painfully. _No wonder he got so good at dodging._

You backpedaled frantically, trying to give yourself some space to heal again, but Sans was on you in seconds. You grunted in pain as he lifted you into the air by your SOUL, throwing you against the walls and ceiling wildly. You’d lost count of the times your bones had shattered against the hard surfaces, leaving cracks in the stones that would only vanish the moment you reloaded your Save.

You wondered if Sans felt any remorse for what he was doing; if he thought of you as a misguided but redeemable youth who had simply chosen the wrong path, or as a demon child who needed to be euthanized without pity. You wondered if he remembered previous timelines where you hadn’t given each other a bad time, where you’d freed the monsters and led them to happiness on the Surface… only to Reset and tear their happy ending away from them again and again. You knew he held that against you. You were the reason he stopped caring.

On second thought, he probably felt no remorse whatsoever.

You didn’t have the first clue what Sans felt as he threw attack after attack at you, killing you perpetually in an attempt to wear down your Determination and finally make you stay dead. His grim skeleton smile betrayed no hint of his emotions.

Your knees quivered. Your hand twitched around the knife as it threatened to fall from your limp fingers. You couldn’t possibly continue like this for much longer. You found yourself with less endurance after every reload.

_“You can’t stop now, idiot,”_ Chara hissed. It was Chara’s Determination you relied upon now, yours having proved insufficient to keep the Save point active. _“You’ve come too far to run out of steam now!”_

Sans dodged your knife like he had a thousand times. Instead of attacking immediately again, though, he paused. You stared each other down for a moment.

“i know you didn't answer me before, but... somewhere in there. i can feel it. there's a glimmer of a good person inside of you. the memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. someone who, in another time, might have even been... a friend?” He held out one mittened hand to you.

You froze.

_Sans is sparing you._

Every time you reached this point in the battle, you’d ignored his offer and attacked. But you were so tired… tired of fighting, of killing… tired of everything. You didn’t want to do this anymore.

You hesitated, uncertain. Could this possibly be anything but a trap?

_“Of course not,”_ Chara snapped. “ _You know better than to listen to Smiley Trashbag!”_

The nickname made your mouth twitch in an involuntary smile. You remembered hearing Flowey refer to Sans as such, in the timeline you’d been bored enough to stick around and listen to what the psychotic flower had to say.

 

_"He’s caused me more than my fair share of resets._

_Stay away from that guy.”_

Well, you’d already disregarded that advice. Sans knew everything about you. Even if he’d forgotten all the details you’d shared with him during happier times, he’d surprised you with his knowledge of timelines. He’d called you “the anomaly.” He knew more about your time-travel abilities than you did, if the workshop you’d visited once was anything to go by.

Oh well. It wasn’t like you owed Flowey anything.

“c'mon, buddy,” Sans coaxed. “do you remember me? please, if you're listening... let's forget all of this, ok? just lay down your weapon, and... well, my job will be a lot easier.”

You hesitated again.

“ _How many times have you turned him down?”_ Chara whined. _“You know he’s just gonna dunk on you, and you’ll have to start the fight all over again. You’ve come farther than ever, and you’re going to throw it away now? Just get it over with and **kill him already**!”_

You didn’t move. You were frozen with indecision, Sans’ imploring eyelights drilling right into your SOUL. The hand he held out to you didn’t tremble like yours did.

_“What are you doing?”_ Chara demanded, a note of uncertainty entering their voice. _“Stop standing around and kill him or I’ll kill you both!”_

For the first time, you wondered why Chara was so desperate for you to destroy the Underground. What was waiting for them after this battle? What was waiting for either of you? Would Chara really allow you to escape aboveground like they’d promised?

_“Stop with the existential crisis,”_ Chara insisted. _“You’ve picked a hell of a time to get soft on me, Frisk.”_

The realization hit you like a ton of bricks. There was only one thing Chara could be after: the complete annihilation of this world, including yourself. There was nothing waiting for you but death.

If you didn’t kill Sans, he would kill you.

If you did kill Sans, Chara would kill you.

And you had no one to blame but yourself.

In that instant, your willpower crumbled to dust. You felt your Save point vanish as your Determination withered away, involuntarily surrendering your control over the timeline as the knife slipped from your numb fingers.

“…you’re sparing me? finally. buddy. pal. i know how hard it must be… to make that choice. to go back on everything you’ve worked up to. i want you to know… i won’t let it go to waste. …c’mere, pal.” Sans held his arms out for a hug.

Chara scoffed dismissively as tears began to pour down your face. _“You really are a weakling, aren’t you?”_ they muttered. _“Can’t even finish what you started._

_“You could start over, you know,”_ Chara offered as you stood silently, Sans tilting his head sympathetically when he saw your tears. _“If you be a good little murderer, pick up the knife and finish the job, I’ll let you Reset again. All your friends alive, back at the beginning once more. You’ll have one more chance to do everything right. Isn’t that what you want? All you need is to give me a little something in return. You won’t even miss it, really. It’s not like you’re using it right now.”_

You were barely listening. Stumbling forward with a choked cry, you collapsed into Sans’ waiting arms.

“there, there,” he muttered, holding you tightly and letting you sob into his jacket. “it’ll be all right, kiddo.”

You knew it had to be a trap. Sans couldn’t possibly forgive you for everything you’d done. You couldn't forgive yourself, either. And without control of your Save point, there was a better than good chance that Sans’ double-cross would result in a permanent end for you.

You didn’t care. In fact, at this point, you welcomed the idea of oblivion. After all, it was no less than you deserved.

Squeezing your eyes shut, you waited for the blinding pain that would put an end to your sorry life.

And waited.

And waited…

Surely Sans would put you out of your misery any second now.

You waited some more.

…

What was taking so long?

Your terror now dampened by confusion, you drew back slightly to see that Sans’s eyes had gone dark. His permanent grin, now closer to a grimace, was inscrutable.

You wanted to say something, but you were afraid that speaking would break him out of whatever trance was preventing him from tearing you to shreds.

“…sorry, kiddo,” Sans finally said. “can’t do it.”

“W-what?” you finally spoke up.

“i know what you’re expecting. but i’ve seen the end of this story, and it’s not pretty. i dunno about you, but i’m not in a hurry to get there.”

Sans pulled away from you, sticking his hands casually back in his pockets. “i mean, if i kill you here and by some miracle you don’t come back, then what? there are no pieces left to pick up. stopping you now is pointless. guess i shouldn’t have waited until the last minute, heh. and if you end the world, then what? either the world stays ended, or you’ll start over again like you always have. you’ll play nice, or maybe you’ll start killing again, but it’ll end up the same as always. i don’t think even _you_ want that anymore, right?”

“I… I don’t know what I want,” you admitted in a tiny voice.

Sans nodded once. “that’s what i thought.”

“ _Yes you do!”_ Chara screeched. “ _You want to KILL HIM!”_

You didn’t know if Sans could hear Chara, or if he had any inkling that you weren’t alone in the room, but you both ignored the angry ghost. If you’d known Chara could be so easy to disregard, you would have done it ages ago.

_“You idiot,”_ they hissed. _“Do you really think I’ll let you give up so easily?”_

Their eyes melted down their face in a nightmarish grin. Your blood froze as Chara plunged their ghostly hand directly into your chest. You felt them reach for your SOUL, seeking to make it their own. Their fingers closed around the glowing red heart, and they _tugged._

And tugged…

But it refused.

You were only LV 19. You hadn’t killed your final opponent. The tiniest shred of humanity that you clung to was preventing Chara from taking your SOUL.

With an inhuman scream, Chara backed away from you.

_“This isn’t over,”_ they promised. “ _I OWN YOU! You can’t hide behind Trashbag forever!”_

Again, the enraged ghost was surprisingly easy to ignore. You turned to Sans.

“So… what now?” you asked cautiously.

Sans shrugged. “dunno. i hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

You both stared at each other in contemplative silence. Finally Sans shrugged again.

“guess there’s no point staying down here, huh?” he said. “maybe we oughta move on.”

“Move on where?” you sighed. “There’s nothing left.”

“maybe not underground. but you know the rules, right? it takes a human soul plus a monster soul to cross through the barrier. and right now…” he paused to glance at you appraisingly. “it looks like we’ve got one of each.”

“I guess so.” You frowned. “Is this really what you want?”

“doesn’t really matter anymore, does it? this is the least unappealing of several undesirable options. we might as well see where it goes.”

You had to admit, he had a point. “Okay. Let’s go, I guess.”

Turning your back firmly on the still-screeching ghost, you and Sans walked side by side into the next room. Asgore and Flowey were nowhere to be seen. Weren’t they both supposed to be here?

Upon closer inspection, the flowers in the throne room were coated with a thin sheen of dust. Sans turned away, looking sick. You passed through the room without a word.

You found yourselves in front of the shining Barrier that had trapped monsters underground for who knew how many centuries. You felt your hand wrap around Sans’s without a word exchanged.

“I don’t know what’s waiting for us,” you admitted. After living through so many identical timelines, the idea of not knowing what the future held was both frightening and thrilling. You knew that you would never be able to atone for what you’d done. You would bear the scars of your deeds for the rest of your life, however long that may be. For all you knew, Sans would stab you in your sleep tomorrow. You wouldn’t blame him.

“i don’t know either,” Sans responded slowly. “let’s go find out.”

Hand in hand, you and Sans left the ravaged world behind and stepped through the Barrier together into an uncertain future.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this one for a while. My dear friend @HappyFazzbearPonies2 drew an illustration to go along with it, but I have no idea how to show it here. If you want to see it, it's the cover icon on my rarely-used Tumblr! (same username)


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